Upriver, ID

We are the UpRiver Community–a community made up of several towns or what some might term “villages” considering the populations and the services available in the area. Fernwood, Santa, and Emida are the “towns” listed as part of the Horizons UpRiver Community, though Clarkia has often been included in our activities since it is the only other little community in our “bowl” in the mountains. Clarkia, however, is not in Benewah County but is a fingertip of Shoshonne County.

The name UpRiver came from the fact that all of our small communities are “up” the St. Maries River from St. Maries, Idaho. We are somewhat isolated from other towns in Benewah County, Idaho by mountains and the River. To leave (or enter) the area in any direction a person must go over a “pass”. The passes do not have official names like “Snoqualmie Pass” but each one presents its own challenges in the winter time. One pass goes from Clarkia, south of Fernwood, to Bovill on the Deary side. Another goes across the “Harvard Hill” from Emida to Princeton headed toward Potlatch. Those choosing an alternate route out of Emida to highway 95 must cross the pass into Sanders on the Sanders road. The only other way out of this area is into St. Maries climbing up to Flat Creek and dropping down the other side.

Fernwood has the only Mercantile, which is a well-stocked store supplying groceries, hardware, and gas. The K-8 school is also in Fernwood and serves as the community center at this point in time. The gym is sometimes used for community gym nights, and fund raisers are held in the same multi-purpose room, as it also serves as the school’s cafeteria and auditorium. Fernwood also is the center from which the volunteer ambulance and the volunteer fire department are staged. It has its own post office, but mail delivery is to boxes within the post office as there is no home delivery in town. The town also boasts an active community non-denominational church, a senior citizens’ center, and a small library. There are two taverns and two cafes. A number of businesses call Fernwood home, but they are not necessarily located along the main street of town.

Santa has a post office and one tavern–the Santa Resort. Other businesses are advertised by signs along the road or on the post office bulletin board. Again, mail delivery is to postal boxes within the post office as there is no local rural delivery here.

Emida has no post office of its own but has a very visible restaurant called The Drifters. The town has a good community spirit as there are many who get together for activities such as weight-watchers, youth group, secret sisters, bingo, and more. The current UpRiver correspondent to the St. Maries Gazette lives in Emida and does a great job of covering local news from the whole area.

Since many of the businesses in the UpRiver area are not highly visible the Horizons group have made entrepreneurial development one of its priorities. Helping the businesses get better visibility as well as connect them with one another and with people in the area who are looking for work. We believe this will put everyone in a greater position of strength.

Together with helping business minded people, the vision is to improve the communication of the people of UpRiver because it is an area that is home to many strong minded people with strong values about home and family. We have ideals that we want to maintain and are willing to work with one another to achieve our common goals. This is evident from the many “grassroots” projects that have already been developed into strong traditions. I am thinking of the volunteer library that became a real county-supported library with a paid librarian, the saddle club with its many summer events that bring people from all over to participate and to watch, the Parent-Teacher Organization that has raised money for school playground equipment, the school volunteer group that has contributed so much in the way of help to the teachers at the school, the church related activities for the youth, and more . . .

Community pride and community structure are deemed important to carry on the momentum we have in our area to improve the buildings that are falling into disrepair because of the lack of a support group who notices and attends to these things. Since we are not incorporated cities and do not have elected or hired officials to oversee these things it is sometimes harder to get the organization needed to make sure we have the sites we would like to use when we want to have a community activity. A community center with a place for adults to hold meetings, youth to have activities, arts and crafts people to show their wares, etc. is always desirable. A plan to be able to expand the library should we want to do that would be helpful (a larger library might curtail disposal of some of the books that our local people cherish.) A plan for our future will give us some control over what that future looks like, before other people move in and decide to implement their vision for our future.